Postdoctoral candidate: assessing links between watershed characteristics and ecosystem health metrics in the fluvial systems of the North Saskatchewan River Basin
The Biological Sciences Department at the University of Alberta is looking for a motivated post-doctoral candidate to join our multi-disciplinary team that is assessing links between watershed characteristics and ecosystem health metrics in the fluvial systems of the North Saskatchewan River Basin.
Project description:
The Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Alberta is looking for a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to work on the project "Development of a comprehensive geospatial tool for assessing watershed integrity and aquatic ecosystem health in the North Saskatchewan River basin". The aim of this project is to develop a geospatial model of watershed integrity, calibrated using multidisciplinary field-based data from selected tributaries in the North Saskatchewan River (NSR). It uses a paired monitoring and modeling approach to develop a geospatial tool that will ultimately allow the identification of potential areas of aquatic ecosystem impairment. This project is a collaborative initiative between the University of Alberta and Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP), and is funded by the Water Innovation Program of Alberta Innovates.
Key responsibilities:
The selected candidate will be responsible for the:
- Evaluation of aquatic ecosystem health across the North Saskatchewan River using readily available field data from selected tributaries (including water quality, microbial communities, periphyton, benthic invertebrates and fish communities).
- Calculation of candidate indices of aquatic ecosystem health.
- Selection of the best performing indicators and development of a multi-metric index of aquatic ecosystem health.
- Development of stressor-response relationships to be used in candidate geospatial models of watershed integrity.
In addition, the selected candidate will be working closely with geospatial and aquatic scientists of AEP to incorporate the developed stressor-response curves into the geospatial models of watershed integrity.
Qualifications and experience:
The successful candidate should have:
- A PhD in freshwater ecology or similar field
- Demonstrable experience with large multi-disciplinary datasets.
- A strong background in statistics and ecological modelling to evaluate environmental indicators.
- Good knowledge in R and/or python for statistical analysis.
- Experience working with geospatial datasets.
- Solid communication and writing skills.
- Good publication record in peer-reviewed journals.
- A proactive profile, capable to work independently within a large multi-disciplinary team.
How to apply:
Applications should include:
- Cover letter including a statement of research interests (one page).
- Full CV and publication list.
- Name and contact information of two academic references.
If you are interested in joining the team, please send your application package as a single pdf file to:
Dr. Craig Emmerton: emmerton@ualberta.ca and
Dr. Rolf Vinebrooke: rolf@ualberta.ca
Deadline for applications: January 31st, 2021
Position duration: 1 year (April 2021 - March 2022)
Location: The candidate will be located in Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) but remote work will be considered.
Gross Annual salary: 50,000 CAD
